Bloom Q1 2019 Recap
Our mission is to build a robust global credit infrastructure, powered by security on the blockchain. Over the last few months in 2019, we have made significant strides in our product and have hit some incredible milestones like launching Bloom for Android, Bloom Radar, and reaching over 300,000 BloomIDs created! Here, we share the progress we’ve made in the first quarter of 2019 and insight into what is in store over the coming months.
Bloom Radar: Free Personal Hack Monitoring
This quarter, we released Bloom Radar, which monitors data breaches and alerts you when your information has been involved in a breach. Radar makes it easier than ever to monitor whether your information has been compromised and accounts put at risk, so that you can act swiftly to guard against identity fraud and mitigate the potential fallout.
To get started, iOS users should update their app to enroll in and starting using Radar. For more information on Radar, check out our announcement post.
- Coming up, we will be sharing more educational content to help teach people how to respond to data breaches. This will include best practices like using password managers and Two-Factor Authentication.
- Later in the year, we will be investigating and incorporating additional data sources to alert BloomID users of additional breaches that involve other types of personal information.
Bloom for Android: Take Control of Your Credit & Identity
The release of Bloom for Android brings the power of a global, secure identity to billions of Android users around the world. Bloom’s streamlined experience allows users to interface with blockchain in an entirely novel way, one that brings the benefits of decentralized technology to the masses. Now, with the Bloom mobile app on Android and iOS, anyone with a mobile device can finally harness the power of blockchain and a secure financial identity.
- This quarter, we launched the first version of the Bloom Android app on the Google Play Store. With the Android app, users can create a BloomID, build their reputation, and complete attestations. Download the Bloom Android app here. For more information, check out our announcement post.
- Coming up, the Android app will reach feature-parity with the Bloom iOS app. Android users will be able to link their existing BloomIDs, complete ID document attestations, and monitor for data breaches with Bloom Radar.
Bloom Marketplace: One-Click Apply for Credit
With the Bloom Marketplace, users can quickly browse offers and securely apply for credit, including everything from personal loans to decentralized credit, from more than a dozen lenders.
- In Q1, we launched our first Bloom-ID enabled lending application partnership with Monevo. With one-click apply, users can securely share their verified information with lenders to quickly apply for credit in seconds!
- For Q2, we will launch additional BloomID-enabled 1-click loan applications to make your financial life easier and more secure.
Bloom Journey: The Future of Digital Lending
Bloom Journey is a secure, white-label application solution that brings consumer lending into the digital age. With Journey, Bloom enables lenders to protect customer data with cutting-edge blockchain technology while providing a seamless lending experience that makes applying for credit a simple and streamlined process, reducing the risk of data breaches and minimizing costs associated with customer on-boarding, compliance, and fraud prevention.
- In Q2, we will roll out Bloom Journey KYC, which allows any organization that needs greater data security and reliability to hook it up to their API and quickly use the Bloom protocol for Know Your Customer verification.
- In Q3, we will introduce a variety of features to make Journey even more robust, providing a secure, white-label application solution for consumer lending, deposit account sign-up, and more.
Secure Data Vault
Bloom Vault is an anonymous, personal data registry service that will be hosted by Bloom or self-hosted by individuals.
- In Q1, we wrote a specification and implemented a proof of concept for the Secure Data Vault. We also initiated an external audit to ensure it is fully secure.
- In Q2, Bloom will roll out a Bloom-hosted service and enroll all new users by default. Current users will be able to opt-in to encrypt existing data. You will also be able to easily delete your BloomID soon, all on your own, if you choose to opt out entirely for whatever reason.
Protocol Upgrades
- In Q1, our developers published several Bloom Improvement Proposals (BLIPs) with improvements related to attestation scaling, privacy improvements and interoperability with other existing and emerging digital/decentralized identity standards.
- In Q2, we will be launching a set of votes on the BLIPs to get community sentiment and approval regarding the proposed upgrades.
- In Q3, we’ll move forward with implementing attestation scaling, privacy, and interoperability improvements based on the results of the votes.
Infrastructure
- In Q1, we transitioned from Heroku to Kubernetes running on Google Cloud Platform, and developed several command line tools to make development and testing more efficient.
- In Q2, we will launch a MetaMask-free version of the web dApp! This will allow individuals who created a BloomID using the mobile app to access the full suite of features on the web, whether you’re on a desktop or mobile device. No MetaMask wallet needed soon!
Attestations
- In Q1, we implemented four very important attestations: Assets, income, bill payments, and ID documents.
- In Q2, we will be working on expanding financial data attestations to support emerging markets. This work is already underway as we encounter potential partners with needs that the existing data providers cannot meet.
Share Kit
- In Q1, we were able to implement deep linking for mobile Share Kit jobs, allowing you to tap a button on a web page and be prompted, in the mobile app, to share data with a requester. You can see an example of how this works.
- Coming up in Q2, we are launching a series of bounties to help us expand Share Kit to other platforms like iOS, Android, Flutter, and several web-based frameworks! We want to make it as easy as possible for developers to integrate Share Kit into their apps and websites to help make creating accounts and logging in easier and more secure.
Bloom in the Wild
We’re passionate about our community and keeping everyone updated on our progress. Here are some more highlights:
- Kept our community updated on a variety of data and privacy breaches with our This Week in Data Breaches series.
- Published a variety of in-depth reports on data, identity, and economics, including on the meltdown of India’s Aadhaar identity system and the rapid rise of wealth inequality over the past few decades.
- Highlighted multiple apps built on Bloom, including Wel-fair, UpTown, and DOXA.
- Announced several new products, libraries, and apps, including Bloom for Android, Bloom Radar, and Bloom Starter.
Along with putting out content for our community, various members of the Bloom team attended and spoke at conferences like ETHDenver, KNOW Identity, D.C. Blockchain Summit, and Bank Innovation Ignite. Bloom also received press coverage from VentureBeat, Forbes, and Cointelegraph.
In Q2 you are going to see Bloom focus on a number of ongoing and new initiatives, such as:
- Giving you even more reasons to come back to the app, like Bloom Radar.
- A number of co-promotion opportunities with some legacy firms that believe in what Bloom is building, both the decentralized identity and the alternative credit scoring system.
- Localizing our video content to help spread the word beyond English-speaking individuals.
- New bounties around Share Kit libraries, integrating the Bloom protocol, and others.
- A MetaMask-free Bloom web dApp experience!
- New deep dive reports on data privacy, the data economy, and alternative data.
- Attending several events, including CreditCon, Auto Finance Innovation Summit, Money 20/20, and a private event we have been invited to attend prior to Card Forum.
There is already so much to come from this area of Bloom, and much more we can’t tell you about yet! But to cap things off, we want to take a moment to show you some statistics from the first quarter of 2019.
300,000+ BloomIDs Created
As we announced in March, at the end of February the Bloom protocol hit a major milestone, reaching well over 250,000 BloomIDs created! This was a momentous occasion that speaks to all the hard work we have put into a great infrastructure, smart contracts, user experience, app design, and marketing the benefits of a BloomID to the people that need it most.
This massive number of users makes Bloom the largest decentralized identity protocol in the world. Much of that growth was driven by the launch of Bloom for Android, the first version of our Android app, that has helped Bloom extend its reach into countries like Brazil, Taiwan, Russia, Algeria, Colombia, France, India, Italy, Portugal, and other countries where Android’s market share is much higher than iOS.
Overall, in Q1 2019, the protocol experienced 94% growth in the number of BloomIDs over Q4 2018! There were 197,213 new BloomIDs created in the first quarter alone, and we’re looking forward to besting that number yet again in Q2.
We are looking forward to a fantastic Q2 full of new content, messaging, programs, partners, and features being rolled out that we think you will really love.
Bloom: Take Control of Your Credit & Identity
At Bloom, we are giving you the tools to take back control of your data. No more centralized data storage. No more selling off your data to the highest bidder. No more risking identity theft. Bloom enables you to own, control, and protect your data using the latest advancements in blockchain technology.
It’s time to take back control of your data and unlock the power of a global identity today. Click here to download the Bloom mobile app to build a cryptographically secured identity and get data breach alerts with Radar.
Together, we are paving a path for a fairer and more secure credit system, redefining the way that credit and finance are conducted.
To learn more about the latest with Bloom:
